A common video communication session can be managed by a multipoint control unit (MCU). To present a video image within an allocated area over a screen of a receiving endpoint, the video image can be cropped by the MCU. An MCU can crop lines or columns from one or more edges of a conferee's image. Occasionally regions of interest of the image are close to a cropped edge and may be cropped. Accordingly, there is a need in the art for cropping methods that will keep the region of interest within the displayed image. The region of an interest is a sub-image that reflects information relevant to the conference such as an image of a conferee, for example.
An endpoint is a terminal on a network, capable of providing real-time, two-way audio/visual/data communication with other terminals or a MCU. An endpoint may provide speech only; speech and video; or speech, data and video communications, etc. Exemplary endpoints include Polycom VSX series, HDX series, etc. (Polycom, Inc.). An MCU is a conference controlling entity located in a node of the network or in a terminal, which receives and processes several media channels from access ports according to certain criteria and distributes them to the connected channels. Examples of MCUs include the MGC-100, RMX 2000 (Polycom Inc.). Some MCUs can be composed from two logical units: a media controller (MC) and a media processor (MP). A more thorough definition of an endpoint (terminal) and an MCU can be found in the International Telecommunication Union (“ITU”) standards, such as but not limited to the H.320, H.324, and H.323 standards. Additional information regarding the ITU standards can be found at the ITU website www.itu.int.